One interesting thing about restoring vintage synths is that almost every instrument that we work on has been worked on by another tech at least once before. And it seems that more often than not, those other techs were… not great. We see a lot of bad work, but my favorite examples also feature a very special element of absurdity. Here are some recent highlights:
Continue reading ““Don’t be that guy””
NOW FOR SALE IN OUR REVERB SHOP: SOLD! another fully overhauled Roland Juno 106.
Remember when we used to do a blog post and try to think of something to say about every Juno 106 we worked on? It’s a good thing we stopped because this is the 31st Juno 106 that I (Alison) have personally restored, not to mention the ones that Darian has done.
One thing we find in almost every 1980s Roland we work on is crumbly, dirty “dust shields” or “dust protectors” on the sliders (aka faders) of the panel board. These gaskets were cut from thin black EVA foam sheets and were meant to protect the sliders from dust. However, 35 years later, they have dried out and are falling apart, their fragments actually falling into the sliders and making their crackly and intermittent behavior much worse.
Bell Tone Synth Works now offers laser-cut replacement gasket sets for the Roland Juno 106, SH-101, Juno 60 and Juno 6, Jupiter 8, and CompuRhythm CR-78, which you can purchase online here in our Shop. These slider gaskets are made to exact specifications on a professional laser cutter out of 1.5mm stiffened and resin-bonded black acrylic felt which does not shed fibers like other forms of felt. Continue reading “Now Available – Precision Cut Slider Gaskets / Dust Protectors for Juno 106, SH-101, Juno 60, Jupiter 8 and more!”
We had a week full of Junos (Junoes?), with three Juno 60s and four Juno 106es here all at once. These are the ones I did last week in between grinding away at various aspects of an insane Minimoog Model D restoration I’m working on and building a new power supply for a Rhodes Chroma.
(Now for sale in our Reverb shop!) (Sold)
I bought this busted Juno from a guy who was a mover who got it as a tip on a moving job! It was the dirtiest Juno I’ve ever seen. Continue reading “Roland Juno 106 #10 (extreme makeover, synth edition)”
Just finished fixing up another one. We now offer comprehensive Roland Juno 106 service packages to address the typical issues that these very popular synths have!
Since I always do pretty much the same work on every Juno and have posted about it 7 times, this time I’m going to go more into depth about two specific, very common problems a Juno 106 chorus/jack board can have. Continue reading “Roland Juno 106 (#8) – common problems with the Juno chorus”
Sold! Now FOR SALE in our Reverb shop!
I bought this Juno from a guy named Mike in South Jersey, with a shaved head and a gold chain. I met up with him at his garage studio behind a roller rink, where the Juno had been used for over 25 years by musicians providing live accompaniment for the roller skaters. Now the music is performed by two “old cowboys” (his words) on two Hammond console organs. I also met Mike’s overweight English bulldog, who he introduced to me as his girlfriend. I think her name was Bethany. Continue reading “Roland Juno 106 (#7) – this is New Jersey”
After I finished actually working on this Juno, I finally caved in to my perverse scientific curiosity and decided to see if I could use parts from a few half-failed Juno chips (ones from various Juno 106s I’ve worked on, that weren’t fully restored by the soaking/stripping process) to create some fully-functioning ones. Continue reading “Roland Juno 106 (#6)”
I just finished restoring the electronics on this beautiful Juno I bought directly from Japan, with all its voice cards failing, to restore and sell. I was going to announce it as “for sale” here on the blog, but I had already posted it on our Reverb shop yesterday, and by the time I checked my email today it was already sold. Continue reading “Roland Juno 106 (#5)”